What I'm Drinking Tonight

On the way home from the computer store, to cheer myself up, I picked up a bottle of mescal. Naturally, I had to take a good shot when I actually got home. Holy crap, one belt and I'm dizzy. It's El Buho Mezcal.

Stolen Smoked Rum. I had never heard of this, just was looking for something a bit different and took a chance on it. It is very smooth, with an interesting flavor that isn't overwhelmed by the different things that have been used in its creation. I like it a lot.

On the way home from the computer store, to cheer myself up, I picked up a bottle of mescal. Naturally, I had to take a good shot when I actually got home. Holy crap, one belt and I'm dizzy. It's El Buho Mezcal.

Dark Star is part of our imperial series and is inspired by the wandering tribes scattered through the terrible journey of time and space and adrift in the dark matter between the spaces of then and now. Dark Star is a dark, mysterious yet silky oatmeal stout of grand proportions balanced by a firm hop handshake...go ahead, enjoy the journey...Because Beer Journeys Matter!

Abuelita. Mexican hot chocolate mix. I don't drink coffee and tea stains my teeth, so I'm always on the lookout for alternative hot drinks. After I discovered my Alpine Apple Cider mix is fairly high in sodium I had to more-or-less give it up.

Standard grocery store hot chocolate mixes are super sugary. I have a bit of a dairy allergy so when I get or make cocoa it's with soy milk. Starbucks soy cocoa is pretty good, but expen$ive and caloretic.

This weekend I ran across Abuelita. It comes in big pucks, like hockey pucks, that you dissolve in hot (soy) milk. Zero sodium. 100 calories.

Have you ever tried espresso drinks? No, espresso does not taste at all like brewed coffee. And not all espresso tastes the same. Beans from different parts of the world have vastly different tastes. Selecting a favorite coffee bean for espresso is like picking a favorite wine. And you can buy flavored beans - hazelnut is popular if you like sweet drinks that don't taste like sugar.

This web site has brief descriptions of some common espresso drinks. I suppose you can substitute a soy beverage for milk, although I don't know if it will foam.

I may have mentioned that I do not care for Starbuck's espresso, so if you have tried that and didn't like it, I can understand.

Your understanding is incorrect. Espresso is brewed differently and different types of beans are typically used. And it doesn't taste like brewed coffee (unless the creator is 100-percent inept).

There is no such thing as "espresso beans": they are all coffee beans. Any bean may be used to produce brewed coffee or espresso. I have never eaten a coffee bean of any type, accidentally or otherwise. Can't believe they would be any good, but that's beside the point.

NoCoPilot wrote:

...the gawdawful flavor, which I've always likened to pork 'n beans that somebody left on the burner until it turned black.

So the espresso you have consumed tasted like burned beans? Then you should not drink that particular espresso. I certainly wouldn't. Judging all espresso by one tasting or by one specific type is like judging all wine by taking a sip of Thunderbird.

There are two type of coffee beans: Arabica and Robusta. Cheaper coffee beans used for brewed coffee used to be only robusta, while the more-expensive arabica beans were used for espresso. Some people refer to arabica beans as "espresso beans". That is incorrect: there are no espresso plants; there are only coffee plants (sometimes referred to as trees). Much brewed coffee today is made using arabica beans, owing to the increased popularity of espresso and the public's belief that arabica is always best.

When someone refers to a drink as "coffee", unless I know differently, I assume he is referring to brewed coffee: percolator, drip machine, French press, etc. "Strong coffee", to me, refers to brewed coffee which is made with a larger-than-normal amount of coffee grounds, but still using one of the aforementioned processes. Espresso uses a different brewing process, which produces a different product. It is not simply "super strong" coffee. That misconception comes from the fact that espresso is much darker in color than brewed coffee.

Coal and diamonds are both produced from carbon, differing only in the process which produces the final product. But the two are not the same.

A typical espresso shot doesn't contain as much caffeine as a typical cup of brewed coffee. It often tastes stronger, both because a lot of espresso isn't well made eg Starbucks, and because Americans typically like their brewed coffee on the weak, milky side (though most of them don't believe that) eg Dunkin Donuts.

A typical espresso shot doesn't contain as much caffeine as a typical cup of brewed coffee.

Yes. By serving, espresso has about half the caffeine as brewed coffee, sometimes even less. But by volume it it has significantly more. But no one drinks an eight-ounce espresso. Or one of those giant quarter-gallon cups that Starbuck's sells.

richard09 wrote:

It often tastes stronger, both because a lot of espresso isn't well made eg Starbucks...

The taste of espresso is normally referred to as "bolder" than brewed coffee, as "stronger" really isn't well defined. I don't even know exactly what is meant by that. Espresso does have more flavor than brewed coffee, by any measure. Fortunately, it doesn't taste like brewed coffee.